Cardinals drop Grapefruit League opener 8-3.

Matt Adams made the most of his opportunity to start at first base for the Cardinals Saturday while Allen Craig was on the shelf with a sore shoulder.
He stroked two base hits in four at-bats and drove in a pair of runs as the Redbirds lost their spring opener to the Miami Marlins by the score of 8-3.

Matt Adams made the most of his opportunity to start at first base for the Cardinals Saturday while Allen Craig was on the shelf with a sore shoulder.

He stroked two base hits in four at-bats and drove in a pair of runs as the Redbirds lost their spring opener to the Miami Marlins by the score of 8-3.

John Jay had a double, a walk and a stolen base in two attempts. Young slugger Oscar Taveras grounded into a double play in one of his two at-bats. In the other her ripped a ball into the gap with the bases loaded and nearly cleared them. But he was robbed of what seemed to be a sure extra base hit by a nice catch.

Several Cardinals pitchers were treated roughly.

Trevor Rosenthal started the game for St. Louis and gave up four runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out no Marlins hitters.

Randy Choate, Marc Rzepczynski and Victor Marte each gave up a run in an inning of work.

Eduardo Sanchez and Michael Wacha, however, were able to combine for three zeros on the scoreboard. Wacha hurled two frames and gave up one hit and no walks while striking out three. Sanchez struck out two of the three batters he faced and allowed no baserunners.